Saint Valentine - Tapa dura

In ancient Rome there lived a gentle and humble man named Valentine. He was a physician, but he was also a Christian priest whose life and freedom were in constant danger in a city of people who believed in so many gods, not just one. So Valentine tended to his patients in the daytime, but he prayed for them only at night. One day a jailer from the emperor's prison appeared at Valentine's door with his small child, a girl who was blind. Knowing the difficulty of curing blindness, Valentine vowed to do his best, and over the weeks of treatment and prayer the three became fast friends. But even his friendship with the jailer could not save Valentine when the Roman soldier came to imprison him. Here, accompanied by Robert Shabuda's dramatic mosaics evoking the time period in which the story takes place, is the story of a man whose goodness and faith brought about a miracle, and whose name lives on today in one of our most celebrated holidays.

ROBERT SHABUDA grew up in Pickney, Michigan, and is a graduate of Pratt Institute in New York City. He has illustrated several books for children, among which are Walden by Henry david Thoreau; and I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman. Earth Verses and Water Rhymes by J. Patrick Lewis (1991) was Mr. Sabuda's first book with Atheneum. He currently lives in New York City with his companion, Dale Stine, and their cats, Tammy and Reba.